VIA PRESS RELEASE | MVD Entertainment is proud to announce the August 13 digital release of the award-winning, third music documentary in Kenneth Thomas’ trilogy about indie music culture, It Came from Aquarius Records, which explores the San Francisco-based independent record shop that helped shape the tastes of Bay Area residents and beyond for nearly a half a century.
If you are a fan of any independently released music—indie rock, psychedelic, folk, krautrock, weirdo Finnish prog rock, Japanese noise, glitchy black metal, or anything that makes you feel like you’ve discovered a musical diamond in the rough—there’s a chance you directly or indirectly found out about it through Aquarius Records. Walking into the store on any given day would guarantee an exciting music discovery for a lucky patron. The store influenced and enriched countless peoples’ musical tastes with their curated selections—but this film also shows the realities of an indie record store trying to survive in an increasingly difficult market of brick-and-mortar music shops, especially in the ever-changing and price-gouging Mission District of San Francisco.
The store closed in 2016 after 47 years of championing underground and experimental sounds and turning the world onto sound and music of limitless varieties, some of which ended up exploding in popularity out of multiple independent music scenes. Over 60 interviews were conducted for this film: all of the store owners dating back to 1970, other record store owners from around the world, musicians, label heads, music journalists, and INTENSE music collectors.
A few of these folks include Matt Groening (The Simpsons), Wayne Coyne (Flaming Lips), John Darnielle (The Mountain Goats), Marissa Nadler, Emil Amos (Grails, Om, Holy Sons), Ty Segall, and Howie Klein. Six years in the making, the film has a very personal angle, with lots of behind-the-scenes footage (and drama) that shows both the joy and excruciating stress that comes with running—and closing—a store like this.
The film will be available on Amazon, Google Play, TUBI, Fandango at Home/VUDU, NightFlight Plus, and more.
